I just say, when I call, after the intro and and when I have the attention I want..."what I do is offer small business owners affordable asset and income protection, in the form of health, life, DI, CI, accident...do you have any protection like that in place?" I do not mislead, I get right to the point, and fast, their time is valuable as is mine. This is the short of it, as I know what type of business it is and so on before I call, so I then personalize it more...i.e. "what I do is offer farmers affordable..."
Whether they say yes or no, then start asking questions...about their health insurance, which many have these days (of course high deductibles, but find out exactly) Life insurance (what do they have, have they had it reviewed lately? how much? do they have enough?), and figure out where you can fill the gaps. Set an appointment and go armed with packages/bundles/options to fill those gaps. Ask a lot of questions...including the obvious health questions. Of course if they aren't interested and you know it, move on...no sense in wasting time.
You are helping to protect their income and assets, essentially. I have found by trial and error in the past two years while trying to completely exit health insurance as my "in the door" product, with my market, small biz owners, the language matters too...less formal, less "uptight", perhaps less affluent. Using the terms "Financial Advisors' and the like, which connotates to a lot of small biz owners that you might be a stock broker, investment broker, looking for big money to handle, etc, turns them off. Income and asset terminology is more relatable. White collar might be more apt to respond better to Financial protection, and terms of that nature, idk, I do write white collar but it's by default/referrals/friends/etc.
Depends on the demo market though, this works for me. I do all kinds of things to get me where I want to be, which is in front of them, to sell them anything they need after I/we figure out where their gaps are....hence, all the questions/info gathering.
As we all know, there will be many people not interested, but by default, if you make enough calls, you will get appointments. You will get people who are in the market right now, today, the majority of the time.
As for the original poster, ThinkandGrowRich, you are on the right track for sure. From a long time doing this, I'm positive the numbers do not lie, one appointment in 50 calls isn't bad. You will have times where you will make 200 calls, and not get an appointment...that should not happen often, but it will. Keep going, it'll average itself out.
Think 100 calls, 2-4 appointments, good solid appointments that you will sell, if your even just average, not the best on the phone, etc. I suck on the phone, at least I think so, but these are my averages. And out of those appointments you go on, bundle plans (ex: a 20 yr term, with a CI to cover health insurance deduct, living expenses, experimental txs in the event of a CI, and possibly a nice AcciFlex plan to boot), and boost the commish by a lot, so those 2-4 appointments can easily translate into 4-6 deals and more. Personalize it based on info gathering.
If you want more appointments make more calls.
If your being diligent, and asking all the questions, you will make those appointments very solid, ready to buy before you get there.
I could get more appointments in 100 calls, but simply refuse to waste my time on non healthy people, liars not buyers, yada yada. My time is valuable.
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BTW Think and Grow Rich is the best book out there IMO. I've read it a few times, and re-read parts of it to this day. I've also had agents read it when they were starting out. Today, there are more and more good audio books out there. Invest and listen to them.
I like how you think TAGR, you're tracking your calls, and getting a feel for whats up. Here was my day, Monday, I made only about 60 calls, set an appointment on the 8th call, then another on the 53rd call. Of those appointments I will get at least 4 deals. it took me about two hours with breaks and messing around playing video poker online while I waited for people to answer. lol.
You are off to a good start. Like someone else said to you in this thread, just ramp up the calls if you want more appointments.
One thing you might want to try is to call on Mondays, and then Tuesdays if you don't get enough appointments on Monday, and set your appointments working back from the end of the week (I don't usually work Fridays and tend to set all appointments on Wed and Thurs). Just a suggestion if you like to set up your week in a structured format to have the weekends off. I know sometimes you have to meet with a prospect on a weekend, but if your like me, I like my free time and have more of it then I spend working.
Good Luck to you!!!
